InfraCivil

: powerful and challenging emerging markets

Abstract

InfraCivil was an Angolan subsidiary company of CPT, a Portuguese construction firm. The firm operated in infrastructure development and civil construction. So, exploiting the country’s needs, InfraCivil grew at a fast pace developing meaningful road and bridge projects and important buildings up to 2014, when a crisis devastated Angola’s oil-based economy. The government, which had a heavy weight in the construction sector investment, no longer had financing capacity for its construction projects. Furthermore, private investors also started to decrease their activity in the Angolan market. Therefore, the company’s revenues suffered, and it was forced to stop several ongoing works. Because of this economic and financial crisis, by 2017 InfraCivil was in a strategic dilemma. The company came up with two different strategies: to pursue a big construction project from the few available in the market or to complete its ongoing projects and adopt a wait-and-see position while waiting economic recovery signals. In the end, this Thesis aims to analyse those strategic options and alternatives to respond to the external factors that threaten the business sustainability of InfraCivil. For this purpose, this Thesis offers a Literature Review section addressing topics such as the internationalisation to emerging markets, drivers of international performance and divestment strategies. The Thesis also includes a Teaching Note section with an analysis of the key issues of the Case Study.

Date of Award	29 Apr 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Cotter Salvado (Supervisor) & Nuno Magalhães Guedes (Co-Supervisor)